John Cottingham was educated at Oxford University and is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, where he holds an Established Chair of Philosophy. He is also an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. He is (since 1993) Editor of Ratio, the international journal of analytic philosophy. In 2002-4 he was Stanton Lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University, and his most recent book is The Spiritual Dimension (2005).